1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to indoor/outdoor area rugs or mats and, more particularly, to bamboo area rugs.
2. Background Art
Bamboo is a grass, that belongs to the sub-family Bambusoidae of the family Poaceae (Graminae). Bamboo occurs naturally on every industrialized and populated continent with the exception of Europe. There are over 1000 known species of bamboo plants. It is a durable and versatile material, that has been utilized by various cultures and civilizations for various applications. Bamboo has been an integral part of the cultural, social and economic traditions of many societies. There is a vast pool of knowledge and skills related to the processing and usage of bamboo, which has encouraged the use of bamboo for various applications.
Clumping bamboo can be widely grown in tropical climates. The trunk of the plant is called the “culm”. The culm is wider at the trunk or bottom and narrows toward the top. In some varieties of bamboo the culm may grow 40 to 60 feet tall. Once established, bamboo plants can replenish themselves in two or three years. Each year a bamboo will put out several full length culms, that are generally hollow, in the form of a tube having “nodes”. There are other parts of the bamboo plant that can be utilized other than the culm, including commonly used parts of a bamboo such as branches and leaves, culm sheaths, buds and rhizomes. Some species are very fast growing at the rate of one metre per day, in the growing season.
As mention above, bamboo occurs naturally on most continents, mainly in the tropical areas of a given continent. Its natural habitat ranges in latitude from Korea and Japan to South Argentina. It has been reported that millions tons of bamboo are harvested each year, almost three-fifths of it in India and China. One known source of quality bamboo is found in the Anji Mountains of China.
Bamboo has many uses such as substituting commercially for wood, plastics, and composite materials in structural and product applications. There is a large diversity of species, many of which are available in India, which is the second largest source of bamboo in the world ranking only behind China. These grow naturally at heights ranging from sea level to over 3500. Most Indian bamboo is sympodial (clump forming); the singular exception is Phylostacchus bambuisodes, cultivated by the Apa Tani tribe on the Ziro plateau in Arunachal Pradesh.
A common application for bamboo-based products is to utilize bamboo as a wood substitute. These applications include boards of various size and specifications and uses—laminates, flooring, panels, particleboard, insulation material, chipboard, wafer board, woven mat-board, bamboo ply-substitutes and veneer. Bamboo is in many respects, stronger than many wood products, and is comparable for some critical parameters with even some hardwoods. Bamboo laminates could replace the use of wood in many applications mostly including building and construction. Thin walled bamboo species may not be suitable for boards/laminates, but the thick walled bamboo is suitable. There are various thick walled bamboo species like tulda.
Bamboo has to undergo certain processing stages to convert them into boards/laminates. The green bamboo culms are converted into slivers/slats and then to boards. The boards are finally finished by surface coating. The common primary processing steps for making sliver/slats from green bamboo culms are 1. Cross Cutting; 2. Radial Splitting; 3. Internal Knot Removing & Two-side Planing; 4. Four-side Planing; and 5. forming slivers/slats. The common secondary processing steps for making board/laminate from slivers/slats are 1. Starch Removal & Anti-fungal Treatment; 2. Drying; 3. Resin Application; 4. Laying of Slivers/Slats; 5. Hot Pressing & Curing; and 6. form Laminates/Boards. The common surface coating and finishing stages are 1. Surface Sanding & Finishing; 2. Surface Coating with melamine/polyurethane; 3. Curing of Laminate; 4. Fine Sanding; 5. Evaluation of Surface Properties.
There are various types of bamboo flooring including tongue and groove and the type that needs to be butted together. The lacquered flooring tiles are finished using wear resistant UV lacquer and the unlacquered flooring tiles need to be coated/waxed and polished after installation. The strength of Bamboo Boards can be better than common wood board for its special Hi-steam pressure process. The board has good water resistance for its shrinking and expanding rate. Its water-absorbing rate is better than wood and is further humidity resistant and smooth. It has been reported that the strength of 12 mm bamboo ply-board is equivalent to that of a 25 mm plywood board.
There are also various types of bamboo area rugs made of flat elongated slats or strips arranged side by side length wise and having thread woven around and between the strips binding them together in a side by side arrangement. There is also usually a cloth or felt backing or some other fibrous material bonded to the underside. The bamboo area rugs also usually have a boarder edge binding made of cloth or other durable fibrous material.
The bamboo material is very durable for an area rug application, however, the construction of many bamboo rugs are lacking and the indoor/outdoor capability is limited. A novel bamboo area rug construction is needed.